1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a fieldbus stations and, more particularly, to a method for configuring fieldbus stations in a subnetwork.
2. Description of the Related Art
Preferably, networks and fieldbus stations are used, for example, in process automation for the industrial automation of production systems. A known fieldbus is a PROFINET-IO bus, which is based on Ethernet technology. Such a PROFINET-IO bus requires a unique name and a unique IP address for each fieldbus station for addressing in its network, as well as in its subnetworks. If a system operator or planner has configured a system setup consisting of a plurality of fieldbus stations, and has written a control program for this system setup, this control program and the system setup are generally provided with unique addresses. This configuration or control program embodied in this way can be used in a fieldbus based on Ethernet technology. However, the configuration or control program can only be used precisely once due to the addressing scheme. If, however, a series machine manufacturer, for example, manufactures a machine type for a particular system setup, several instances of the identical type of which are to be used within a subnetwork by an end customer, for example, the uniqueness of the names and IP addresses must be ensured when the entire system is commissioned on site.
In accordance with the current state of knowledge, the uniqueness of the names and IP addresses is achieved in that a system startup engineer for the individual system setups or in each instances provides the individual fieldbus stations on site with a unique name and adapts the configuration or the control program, which is loaded onto an IO controller, to the unique name. The system startup engineer also sets unique IP addresses in the configuration. Thus, the problem arises that the system startup engineer must have access to the configuration or the control program and must laboriously modify the configuration or the control program on site for each individual system setup.